The @peopleofcanada Situation

A quick word on the recent events on the @peopleofcanada twitter feed:

(Disclaimer: This is not a justification for what happened or for my actions. I freely admit that I fucked up. I do however feel that I should be allowed to discuss these events from my perspective as receiving "you're a sexist, misogynist pig" messages is not only disturbing... It is not true.)


Firstly, I did not make rape jokes. I responded to a retweet of the recent Jenny McCarthy / Justin Bieber "cougarrape" photo with an (admittedly) bad Pulp Fiction reference. I find the image of Ving Rhames choking Justin Bieber to be funny. I now see that it was a bonehead move as in the context of her original tweet, it came out as a rape joke. 


The person then reacted to my (again... admittedly) stupid joke by bringing up the fact that rape jokes aren't funny. After the Daniel Tosh incident this summer, there was a lot of talk about this in various media. I tried to turn the discussion towards this controversy and the use of rape jokes in comedy. I don't think that my intention came across (it was a discussion I had on my personal account many times) and I didn't handle it as well as I should have, considering I was using the @peopleofcanada account . People got upset as they thought I was defending rape jokes. I wasn't I was trying to talk about the issue of rape jokes in comedy and it snowballed. 


I  apologised to the person in question. A VERY SINCERE apology (that I cannot repeat often enough) as I saw that it had upset them personally and although my humour can be abrasive and offensive, I do not think that I should use it if someone feels vulnerable. If you read the articles on the recent rape joke situation, the consensus is that most rape jokes don't work because they ridicule victims. I would never, and I repeat NEVER use humour to exploit someone's vulnerability. There is offensive humour and there is downright mean humour. And yes... I know that line.


Before these events had even taken place, someone (who, incidentally, was male) had sent me a message telling me what a jerk I was because I had made a joke about beavers having sex. On my personal account, I called this person a cunt. I call people cunts all the time. I blame it on Australia, that damn country corrupted me with bad language and delicious Rum and Coke... This set off another chain of events...


The person I had upset earlier saw this tweet and assumed it was directed at them. It wasn't. I don't know how many more ways there are to say it... That tweet went out before I had interacted with this person. 



An while I'm trying to be clear, Iet me say that I COMPLETELY understand the reasons I was pulled from the account. Because of the misunderstandings that lead up to it, I agree that it could be argued that I'd violated the terms I had agreed to. But I would like it to be clear that I was not being the shameful, woman-hating sexist that some people now think I am. Yes, my jokes can be distasteful and offensive but they are jokes and some people don't like them. I don't believe in hate speech (which is what some are accusing me of) and anyone who follows me knows this. I believe in equality, strength, compassion and solidarity. That's me, that who I am... Unfortunately, that is attached to a big mouth that spews inappropriate things. I also did not participate in hate speech. I called someone who had insulted me a cunt. It had NOTHING to do with women, with rape or with any of the other things that people who did not know the whole story have accused me of. 


Basically, I screwed up and handled a bad situation badly. It wasn't the first time and it probably won't be the last. I'm working on it....


I apologise to everyone on the @peopleofcanada feed who was offended by the way this all played out... Especially to Divyesh Mistry... for having created what must be an Advil-sized headache and to the person who was originally affected by all this. I wish you nothing but the best and hope that you will read this explanation. 


Be good to yourselves,

j.

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